


Education vs happiness

by Paralexium



Category: Outlast (Video Games)
Genre: Are you happy?, Children, Crying, Education, Gay, Good Eddie Gluskin, Kindergarten, Kindergarten teacher Eddie Gluskin, M/M, Projecting, Questioning, Real Life, Sensitive Eddie Gluskin, Short One Shot, Waylon being a good boyfriend, dropping out?, real life story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22131754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paralexium/pseuds/Paralexium
Summary: This is a short story i wrote based in something going on in my life right now, and I don't know how to deal with. (if you feel like giving advice, I don't mind.)I projected myself on Eddie Gluskin even though he's a crazy maniac. ( I have slight sympathy for him though.) In this short story he is not crazy, he is in fact very "normal" trying to navigate through life and education.Education vs happiness, tells a short story of Eddie Gluskin who simply adores children and wants to work with them. Not as a kindergarten teacher, but a future guidance counsellor or perhaps life coach. Things are good, the school is good, the internships are good. Until they're not. Feeling like he's had no say in choosing which age group to work with, Eddie tries to deal with what he's feeling, and how to fix it all to make himself happy.
Relationships: Eddie Gluskin/Waylon Park
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Education vs happiness

From a young age, children often get told by their parents that they should get a good education. A good education meant a good life and to some degree that was true. This advice applied to Eddie Gluskin in his tender young age of about 13, the age where you’d get asked countless times, “So, what do you want to be when you’re grown up?” He heard the question so many times and all he wanted to do was throw up, which he probably would should he hear it come out of someone’s mouth again. 

Eddie is 21 years old today, and he’s half a year from graduating from his current education program. The ravenette had adored children all his life, loved everything about them and wanted to help them grow into the best possible life. This was his motivation for life, especially seeing as he couldn’t have children for himself. The reason for that being that Eddie was gay, he had a boyfriend; Waylon, who he had known since middle school. Their relationship has been going steady for roughly 5 years, sure they could go for adoption but that just wouldn’t be the same now would it? 

For this reason, Eddie took the opportunity to enroll in an education program to become a kindergarten teacher. The program varied between school periods and internships, the whole program spread over 2 years. It has to be said though, that Eddie’s main goal was not to become a kindergarten teacher and work as that, but it was a stepping stone to become more. 

He dreamt of become a guidance counsellor on a school or perhaps a workplace in need of guidance. Hell, he’d love to become a life coach! The reason Gluskin didn’t go straight for the jobs was the fact that he couldn’t. There was no direct education for these jobs, certificates yes, but no education. This gave him the opportunity to get to know the kids and how they were thinking, how he could help them through their life in school and the future that is to come.

So far Eddie had been through two internships and was about to enter his last one. The last internship was where he’d have to prove himself, all he had learned from the other workplaces together with his school theory and put it all together. Simple enough it would seem, simple until it wasn’t. 

To get into the program and get the title of kindergarten teacher you must go through an internship interview, which is nearly the same as a job interview. At the interview Eddie had been very adamant on the fact that, the thing he wanted the very least would be to work with the smallest children, that being the children between the age of 1 ½ - 3. It was nothing personal really, Gluskin simply had no clue on how to operate with these small sized human beings.

The moment he had been told in their school period that he’d been situated at a kindergarten with that age group, dread was all that filled his body. Eddie’s classmates had told him not to worry too much and that it would be fun. Honestly, that was not what he needed, and he certainly did not need to be convinced. With his dreams in mind, he couldn’t see how working with this age group would benefit him in any way. He’d tried to speak to the school’s counsellor on how to fix this. Convincing tactics was what met him. He tried his teacher, again convincing tactics

At this point he felt very forced and like his freedom for his own development had been taken away from him. Did he not have a say in this at all? It was his future hanging in line here. 

Nevertheless, Eddie went to the internship. The first day had been a day filled with not knowing what to do about himself or the children. He wasn’t alone but he was afraid to ask questions, feeling like this should come natural to him, that he wasn’t a simple student, but it didn’t. Eddie tried to bond with a few of the children, with small success but still a success. 

The train ride home… Eddie felt like crying his eyes out. The weight of it all falling on his already heavy shoulders, yet he couldn’t cry, not in the train filled to the brim with people. The pressure becoming too much, he decided to call Waylon, dialing his phone number then waiting for the pick-up. “Hello?” Hearing Waylon’s voice pushed some of the depressing feelings out of Eddie’s body, though they were still lurking about, ready to attack at a moments notice. Taking a shaky breath in the ravenette answered “Hello, darling… You have no idea how much I’ve missed hearing that sweet voice of yours.” It was true. “Haha, you’re silly Eddie, you know that. All the more reason to love you though.” To Eddie, hearing the blonde boy laugh was drugs in high concentration. “I got to say, it has only been 9 hours since you left the house this morning and heard my voice last. You must really miss me…” Waylon was too good for him. 

Their conversation continued through the entirety of his train ride, all the way to the front door of their house where Waylon stood, waiting for him. Both their phones dismissing the call then locked down. Putting his mobile in the pocket of his jacket, Eddie went straight for the blonde standing in the door way, grabbing hold of him as he lifted him up, twirling them around before putting Waylon down again, going in for a heated kiss. The kiss was hot, yet tender at the same time, their love for each other channeled through it. Pulling apart, the smaller man before him cupped Eddie’s chin as he spoke “Come on in, you crazy fool. It’s freezing out here.” In they went preparing for dinner while Eddie forgot all about the next day to come at the internship. 

Waking up to the alarm next morning seemed harder than it should be for Gluskin. Beside him laid his boyfriend, not even aware of the noisy ringing. Always been a heavy sleeper… Eddie was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. The alarm had been set to snooze, so he had a couple of minutes to sort out his thoughts and feelings in preparation for his second day at the internship. Once more the tears threatened to well up and spill over, but they didn’t, he couldn’t do this to Waylon. Yes, he was a heavy sleeper just not when it came to the small sniffling’s Eddie had had in their early years of living together. Back then the ravenette feared losing the other, feared that he wasn’t good enough and he had done nothing to deserve as good a boyfriend as Waylon. The blonde had quickly comforted him and continued to do so every time Eddie doubted himself. 

The alarm went off again, only this time Eddie got up to put on his clothes, brush his teeth, comb his hair and at last dress himself for the cold winter weather outside. Before leaving he went back into their bedroom and kissed his boyfriend goodbye, the response being a grumble and the turn of his head clearly disliking the disturbance of his sleep. The taller couldn’t help the small smile blooming on his lips.

He went out the door, making sure to lock it after him. The train station was a mere ten minutes’ walk from their house, the train leaving in twenty meant he could take it slow. Because it was early in the morning, early being 06:15, Eddie walked completely alone. Knowing he was alone, he could truly let the tears he’d held for so long spill over. Tears weren’t enough, small sobs escaped with every new wave of tears, feelings and thoughts, the sensation of it all felt like small whip lashes, phantom pains. Everything felt so unfair to him, he found no sense in anything, no sense in the school books, the theories, the practical use of theories, the internship. No one was listening to him. 

Gluskin wished for a black hole to suck him up and out of this world, floating around in eternity or until he died. Perhaps he should drop out of the program? That would be stupid though, he only had half a year left… but was that honest to god worth the 4-5 months of hell he would have to go through at the internship right now? He could drop out, find a job that required no education even though that was hard enough already, then again if he did, he could focus solely on getting certificates on life coaching, guidance counselling whatever! He would not have to worry about this internship… half a year left. 

Another idea came into the ravenette’s mind. He could try to contact the person who “hired” him at the interview back then, that way he could try and convince her to let him work with the older children, make her see sense in it all. If not… then he probably should drop the program. Eddie knew he couldn’t go about with a sad face, with no motivation for this education and expect to get through it with good remarks. Besides, no one should feel like crying whenever they thought about their job, education or internship. No one should cry because of that.  
Eddie stopped in his tracks then, wiping his eyes dry of his tears. Determination flowed through him, he had a plan. 

If anything failed, he’d just have to get rid of it all.


End file.
